As many of you may already know, in the last year or two there has been a surge of true crime podcasts. Some deal primarily with true crime, others address other things such as legends, cults, cryptids, and UFOlogy.

History is
full of stories of killers, madmen, and nightmarish beasts. As a longtime reader
of true crime I have been interested in these kinds of stories. In talking with
others, I’ve found that I’m not alone in this interest. This has led to the
creation of a monthly column, “In Mentem Insania”.

Each month, I will focus on an aspect of medieval true crime, legends, cults, and oddities. This includes: Erzebeth Bathory, Christman Gniepperteinga, Gilles de Rais, the Fehmgerichte in Westphalia, and the draugr. A link to the blog is located at the top of this article. The articles are free, but if you’d like to support what I’m doing, please consider becoming a patron.

If you have heard
about something that might be an interesting topic for this column, please
contact me at inmenteminsania@jennstrobel.com. I’m very open to pretty much
anything that falls into the “scary and odd” range and happened between the
dawn of time and 1600.